Laptop Touchpad AND External Hard Drive Won't Work.

My laptop won't read my external hard drive, and also my touchpad won't work.With my external hard drive, it's a western digital my book, not sure what model but i think it's 500GB, but it's worked perfectly up until today when I tried loading her up and she was making a funny noise.

After investigating the noise it sounds like a "stuck spindle", and if that's the case I am rather upset as hardware problems seem to be fatal for external HDD's.

Now I would be done with it, if it wasn't for the fact that my laptop's touch pad stopped working, which leads me to believe I may have a driver problem, because even if my HDD WAS broken, shouldn't my computer still read it?? It makes sense to me...

SO any ideas? It would be really unfortunate if my HDD was dead because it's an integral part of my existence.

ALSO, with my HDD, the first couple times I tried to plug it in, it would cause my computer to shut down every time I plugged it in! This seems important, and unrelated to the spindle problem.

Also, my laptop is some old acer (don't tease, it's my sister's old one that she was going to throw away so I fixed it up.)

EDIT:HOLY crap, a bubble just popped up, and all i read was, a usb device has malfunctioned and isn't working properly, but it closed as soon as it opened, is there anyway that I can investigate it/ reopen it??

DOUBLEEDIT:The bubble came up again and I managed to click it. it says:"USB device not recognizedOne of the USB devices attached to this computer has malfunctioned and windows does not recognize it."then it shows the 'unknown usb device' hooked into my usb root hub.and at the bottom it says"Try reconnecting the device.If Windows still doesn't recognize it, replace the device"

WTF I can't just replace the device...Solutions? Comments?

This now has me thinking that they are seperate issues, I don't really care about the touchpad, I'm getting a new laptop, but I can't afford for my external hard drive to be dead.

My laptop won't read my external hard drive, and also my touchpad won't work.With my external hard drive, it's a western digital my book, not sure what model but i think it's 500GB, but it's worked perfectly up until today when I tried loading her up and she was making a funny noise.

After investigating the noise it sounds like a "stuck spindle", and if that's the case I am rather upset as hardware problems seem to be fatal for external HDD's.

Now I would be done with it, if it wasn't for the fact that my laptop's touch pad stopped working, which leads me to believe I may have a driver problem, because even if my HDD WAS broken, shouldn't my computer still read it?? It makes sense to me...

SO any ideas? It would be really unfortunate if my HDD was dead because it's an integral part of my existence.

ALSO, with my HDD, the first couple times I tried to plug it in, it would cause my computer to shut down every time I plugged it in! This seems important, and unrelated to the spindle problem.

Also, my laptop is some old acer (don't tease, it's my sister's old one that she was going to throw away so I fixed it up.)

EDIT:HOLY crap, a bubble just popped up, and all i read was, a usb device has malfunctioned and isn't working properly, but it closed as soon as it opened, is there anyway that I can investigate it/ reopen it??

DOUBLEEDIT:The bubble came up again and I managed to click it. it says:"USB device not recognizedOne of the USB devices attached to this computer has malfunctioned and windows does not recognize it."then it shows the 'unknown usb device' hooked into my usb root hub.and at the bottom it says"Try reconnecting the device.If Windows still doesn't recognize it, replace the device"

WTF I can't just replace the device...Solutions? Comments?

This now has me thinking that they are seperate issues, I don't really care about the touchpad, I'm getting a new laptop, but I can't afford for my external hard drive to be dead.

Run a windows update to check for the latest drivers for your touchpad and check the support part of the manufactures website as well. Check the site of the manufacturer for your external for drivers aswell. Also try using Disk Managment to look for your external

If ur HDD is screwed windows sometimes doesnt pick it up, plug it into another PC to test but if its making a loud sound its probably screwed, Try plugging it into another USB port also. As 4 ur touchpad there should be a service running for it so check in the bottom right next to the time, right click on it go to settings and make sure its enabled. If that fails right click my computer and select manage, when the window opens up select device manager now check on the right side that there are no exclamation marks anywhere, u can also update ur drivers here by selecting a device right clicking on it and choosing update driver software (but make sure u are connected to the internet)Well thats all i can think of! Hope u come right.

also, wd my books are pretty easy to open up, i opened mine up a couple of weeks ago. if it's not under warranty, i'd suggest opening it up (instructions are easily found online) and plugging the drive in to a computer internally (mine was a SATA drive just fyi) to see if the problem is with the drive itself or the casing/usb component of the external.